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Online poker players in Pennsylvania now share the virtual felt with several states, bringing record prizes and more competition in a decision pushed and applauded by operators.
State officials recently gave the green light for online poker operators to merge player pools with five other states — New Jersey, Nevada, Delaware, West Virginia, and Michigan — allowing bigger tournaments and more players buying in.
For players looking to test their mettle against others across the country, that means they could stand to win significantly more money for the same buy-in.
BetMGM and World Series of Poker, two of six online poker operators in the state, have already started multistate games for Pennsylvania players, since Gov. Josh Shapiro approved the change in April. The merge brought the largest prize BetMGM has awarded yet with one winner walking away with almost $100,000.
The change is expected to fetch slightly more revenue in the state — but a former state representative says that’s not the main benefit.
The decision is fueled by a desire to improve the game for Pennsylvania’s estimated 150,000 online poker players, said former state Rep. George Dunbar (R-56), who is now a member for the Gaming Control Board.
A former online poker player himself, Dunbar said a larger player pool means a chance to practice skills against more people.
“It makes the game better when you're playing with more people,” he said. "Everybody likes to see how they compare with everybody else. It gives you that opportunity.”
Game operators say the change is already resulting in more players jumping in, doubling or tripling player counts at BetMGM.
“It's night and day in terms of what was offered previously,” said Will O’Connor, senior manager of poker marketing at BetMGM. “We've seen higher stakes games, and we've seen a lot of new growth from Pennsylvania.”
It’s also nearly doubled the prize pool for a $250 buy-in tournament for players to over $100,000. Pennsylvania is the largest state to enter in the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement, which allows merged tournaments.
BetMGM now holds multistate tournaments between New Jersey, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
“Pennsylvania has always been a key market,” said David Mileaf, BetMGM’s senior manager of poker operations. “It's very, very much a poker state, so we were waiting for a long time to get this opportunity to bring them in with our player pools and reward them with the big money that comes with more players and merged pools.”
It also shortens wait times for players who queue up for nonscheduled tournaments that need a minimum number of players to run.
And more gaming operators are likely to eventually expand to multistate tournaments to stay competitive.
“I would assume, just from a competitive advantage standpoint, that they would all seek at some point to enter the multistate agreement,” said Lee Copello, director of iGaming compliance for the state Gaming Control Board.
But merged games likely won't bring in noticeably more cash for the state.
Last fiscal year, the state earned around $4.5 million from online poker, relatively low compared to more than $840 million total earned from online gaming.
Gaming Control Board officials are unsure how much more money a shared player pool will bring in, although they expect a slight increase in profits.
“The revenue side is minimal. It's helpful. I mean, you know, a million dollars here, a million dollars there, it goes a long way,” Dunbar said.
He introduced legislation last year urging the governor to enter MSIGA, but it never came to a vote.
“Once we had the bill out there, it drew attention from not only the governor's office, but the poker community, and the poker community got very strongly behind it,” Dunbar, said.
Abigail Hakas is a reporter for Next Generation Newsroom, part of the Center for Media Innovation at Point Park University. Reach her at abigail.hakas@pointpark.edu.
NGN is a regional news service that focuses on government and enterprise reporting in southwestern Pennsylvania. Find out more information on foundation and corporate funders here.
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